Last Thursday the P.A date of this years Metal Alliance tour was do to hit Theater of the Living Arts. The highly awaited Poles known as Behemoth would bring on an onslaught of epic proportions as they support their new masterpiece known as “The Satanist”. With them they would bring on 1349/Goatwhore/Inquisition and Black Crown Initiate. This bill all together has proven successful in every major city they played thus far, and also as a representation of black metal in all it’s different manifestations.

Black Crown Initiate being a small town P.A have picked themselves since 2012 and released some sort of progressive black metal which works out perfectly fine with them. Them as openers would not only demonstrate the diversity black metal can have but also it build up the intensity as the other bands took their turn. The 2 piece known as Inquisition were ready to tear up the night. They had a pretty solid 30 mins set that included a nice amalgamate of their best material to date. They demonstrated another mask of what black metal could be; this one with a bit of trash and doom like riffs.

Up next was Goatwhore, the New Orleans natives brought with them some of their new material to this tour, they displayed a more death/thrash approach to their black metal. They started up the moshing and headbanging bringing up the crowd up to what would follow next. 1349 were a straight to your face attack of pure and raw black metal. After 4 years they brought new material yet they also played their most blasphemous songs till date which made for a brutal 40 minute set that would only live up to their commanders in war, Behemoth.

Saying that “The Satanist” masterpiece does not begin to do justice to record. With that said we were in for a treat. Opening with “Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel” the crowd went insane. Behemoth showed a dominant/intimidating stage presence which only added to the intensity of the moment. They included their best work to date; tracks like “As Above So Below”, “Christians to the Lions”, “Ov Fire and the Void” , & “The Satanist”. The one hour and a half set flowed beautifully yet it was not anything short of brutal and destructive. Closing the ceremony they would play “O Father, O Satan, O Sun” which made for a memorable and intense experience. The crowd reacted many different was, from moshing, to head banging, singing, crying you name it. Being the closing track only tied everything together and as the song ended they were covered in blood and later put on their black masks as part of the rite. An overwhelming feeling of destruction had already filled the crowd by then, as it something were to explode inside one. Behemoth have proven to only get better and better with time, leaving a trail of destruction thus far, and two nights after they destroyed NYC’s Irving Plaza, with a completely sold out show.

Related Articles

‘Electric Six’ once more journey to Northern Ireland to ignite fire in the disco into Belfast’s Limelight and, as expected, deliver a quirky and powerful performance with their own brand of electronic funk rock which enslaves their audience in a frenzy of singing and dancing.

As well as the Deep Purple track Burn, which is the mother of all cover versions and features regularly in their set, they included a stunning rendition of Black Hole Sun, the second tribute of the night to Chris Cornell which was massively well received by the audience.